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Nigel Planer joins cast of Charlie & The Chocolate Factory

Further casting has been announced for the new musical adaptation of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, which opens on 25 June 2013 (previews from 18 May) at the West End's Theatre Royal Drury Lane.

Helmed by Sam Mendes, who recently directed the acclaimed new Bond film Skyfall, the production will star Olivier and Tony Award-winning actor Douglas Hodge as Willy Wonka.

Hodge will be joined in the cast by Nigel Planer as Grandpa Joe. Planer, who rose to fame playing hippy Neil in The Young Ones, has previously appeared on the West End stage in Hairspray, Wicked, We Will Rock You and Chicago, among others.

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory centres on mysterious sweet-maker Wonka, who is opening his Chocolate Factory for
just one day, and the humble boy Charlie Bucket for whom it promises to
be a mouth-watering chance to feast his eyes on sweets beyond his
wildest imagination.

Set and costume design will be by Mark Thompson with choreography by Peter Darling (Matilda, Billy Elliot).
Other members of the creative team include: Doug Besterman
(orchestrations); Nicholas Skilbeck (music director); Paul Pyant
(lighting designer); Paul Arditti (sound designer) and Jon Driscoll
(video and projection designer).

Charlie will be the second Roald Dahl adaptation playing in London with the RSC's multi award-winning Matilda the Musical continuing at the Cambridge Theatre.

Dahl's
book was first published in 1964 in the US and in the UK in 1967. It
has been adapted into two Warner Bros. Pictures films: Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory in 1971 and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory in 2005.

The stage musical is produced by Warner Bros. Theatre Ventures, Neal Street Productions and Kevin McCormick.

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